Vets in LA hope, with Trump order, that they can finally come home : NPR

On a cool weekday morning last month, a short distance from California’s most fancy boutiques and bistros, Irving Webb was desperately trying to beat the camp as he shoveled the sidewalks where sanitary workers lived for the last few nights. The Iraq War veteran sweated through his white T-shirt and thrived his belongings into a shopping cart.

“I’ve been here for five years,” he says.

“Here” is located outside the gates of VA’s vast West LA campus. Los Angeles has the largest number of homeless veterans in the country. This is surprising as it also has a large 388-acre Veterans Affairs Campus, which was donated in 1888 as a soldier’s home.

However, in recent decades it has been used for suspicious leases, such as private Brentwood School and the playgrounds at UCLA baseball stadiums. The lawsuit forced the VA to begin construction of the home, but that was late. Political pressure has led to a temporary shelter for a kind of refugee camp in a parking lot inside the gates. If these small homes are full, an overflow bed will be assigned to be available.

“I’ve always done it, and it doesn’t work for me. This works for me,” says Webb, even if his camp gets cleaned from the sidewalk and washed away by a trash truck.

“Veterans appear in the evening and there’s not enough space for them to go,” said Rob Reynolds, an Iraqi veteran and advocate for LA’s homeless veterinarian.

Reynolds said it is often the most difficult veteran. He says if the VA moves a home on a facility faster to a building, there are more options due to issues like veterinarians from different eras, mental illness and substance abuse.

“The housing on this property is very important for people with severe disabilities as it could be right next to the hospital. They can be right next to where they are receiving mental health care,” he said.

The small home is adjacent to a veteran line on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in October 2023.

Alex Wales of NPR

Hide captions

Toggle caption

Alex Wales of NPR

Warrior’s Independence

now Presidential Order from the White House on May 9th It gave Reynolds new hope that the home could finally come.

“The VA campus in West Los Angeles will be a National Warrior Independence Center with facilities and resources to help veterans regain self-sufficiency.” Orders read. Instructs the VA Secretary to develop a plan within 60 days to accommodate 6,000 veterans on campus by 2028.

However, the order came without consultation with Los Angeles VA officials, according to three current and former government employees who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity to discuss internal communications. VA spokesman Pete Casperowitz said details were approaching but did not answer certain questions.

One of the details included in the order plan raised questions. The 6,000 veterans are about twice as many as LA’s current homeless veterinarians. It is not clear whether that means that the Trump administration will use the LA campus to house veterans from all over the country. In the past VA officials opposed Even LA alone has so many problematic veterans in one place. They said it was like a redline and could make the campus a kind of ghetto.

Brad Sherman, a Democrat who represents West LA in Congress, says he doubts the order is serious due to lack of details. For example, the order states that construction will be paid with “funds that could have been spent on housing or other services for illegal aliens.”

A mural dedicated to a veteran near the campus of the West Los Angeles Veterans Medical Center in October 2023.

Alex Wales of NPR

Hide captions

Toggle caption

Alex Wales of NPR

“It seems like a press release from a campaign that President Trump loves veterans and hates undocumented immigrants,” Sherman said.

Many of the construction delays on the VA campus were legal issues for VAs to enter the housing business. LA supporters raised funds Public-Private Partnership It took me years to put it all together. Sherman said he would be happy if the Trump administration funded more construction.

“We really hope he will move forward with his plan to provide something that could be $3.3 billion to build 6,000 homes,” he said.

Iraqi veterinarian and supporter Reynolds accepted the news.

“The executive order is morally correct. We are extremely grateful that President Trump took this position, as the thousands of veterans lie on the streets of Los Angeles, with nearly 400 acres of land donated to accommodate them,” Reynolds said.

While they await fine print, Los Angeles supporters dream of being able to fully fund a bigger plan for the campus.

“I don’t care who gets credit as long as it’s done properly,” said Westla Veterans Group and Steve Peck.

In the background, another effort is still being developed to build homes on campus. Last year, a judge ordered the VA to quickly build hundreds of new temporary housing. However, the government later appealed, and a panel of three judges from the 9th Circuit I heard the discussion in April. So far, the Trump administration has not withdrawn its government appeal. This requires less than half of the housing units that have just been mandated by an executive order.